The Best Sales Books of All Time (2024)

SPIN Selling is a framework for sales conversations, it is especially useful for selling higher-priced products and services. Neil Rackham conducted research that found the most effective salespeople ask four specific types of questions. SPIN is an acronym for these questions: Situation, Problem, Implication and Need-payoff.

$100M Offers by Alex Hormozi teaches business owners how to create irresistible offers that sell better and at higher prices. He explains how to increase revenue by raising the perceived value of your product or service, using strategies like premium pricing, risk-free guarantees, stacking, bonuses, scarcity, and exclusivity.

The Challenger Sale explains how to sell more effectively, especially if you're involved in large, complex, B2B sales. The authors backwards-engineered what exceptionally high-performing sales people called "Challengers" do. Their advice focuses on teaching the customer valuable insights about their business, and being assertive pushing the sale forward.

To Sell Is Human is about "non-sales selling" or, how to persuade others. Daniel Pink argues that sales skills are more essential than ever because "moving others" has become a part of most careers and businesses. His advice centers on the new ABCs: Attunement, Buoyancy and Clarity.

The Psychology of Selling is a classic business book that is a must-read for sales professionals. Brian Tracy shares many practical tips for how to get more appointments, what to say during sales presentations, and the best ways to close the sale.

Never Split the Difference shows how to win negotiations and communicate more influentially. Chris Voss perfected his techniques over 25 years at the FBI, negotiating with kidnappers and terrorists. He says we should work with emotions not just reason, demonstrate empathy, use open-ended questions and educate ourselves about cognitive biases.

Secrets of Closing the Sale is a considered a must-read by many sales professionals. Zig Ziglar shares a lifetime of time-tested selling techniques that are based on honesty, enthusiasm, and empathy.

Influence is about six principles of persuasion useful for sales, marketing, and negotiation. Professor Robert Cialdini backs his ideas with a lot of science research. The six principles are: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is a guide to getting along with others. Dale Carnegie says people are "creatures of emotion" that desperately desire a feeling of importance. We can provide that feeling with our sincere enthusiasm, consideration, interest and appreciation.

Getting to Yes is the most important book on negotiation, according to many professionals. It comes from leaders of The Harvard Negotiation Project, who wanted to help people negotiate agreements with less time and friction. The four steps of the method are: people, interests, options and criteria.

$100M Leads by Alex Hormozi is a book about how to increase sales by getting more engaged leads. It teaches us how to create a valuable lead magnet, cold contact people you don't know, build a large audience of followers, scale advertising profitably, build an affiliate program, and much more.

"What Every BODY Is Saying" by Joe Navarro is a guide to understanding body language, written by a former FBI agent. The book offers science-backed insights to help you communicate better and read people's nonverbal signals to understand their true thoughts and feelings.

Pre-Suasion shows a new side of influence. It's about everything that happens BEFORE you ask someone to say yes to your proposal. Professor Robert Cialdini has distilled hundreds of scientific studies to prove that how you FRAME a message from the beginning is crucial to its success.

DotCom Secrets is a guide to building a successful online business using marketing funnels. Russel Brunson teaches how to grow an online audience with email marketing, multiply profits with "value ladders," and even provides exact scripts to create our own sales videos.

The 10X Rule challenges us to set targets 10X larger than before and then take 10X the action we believe is necessary. Grant Cardone says achieving success always takes exponentially more effort, time and money than we think. We always set our goals too low and underestimate the challenges we'll face.